Fallen luger to return home, sport in turmoil

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Grief-stricken Olympic organizers made final plans Sunday for the body of the Georgian killed on the luge track to return home, leaving behind a sport in disarray and a games struggling to escape the tragic specter of the crash.

Flowers and memorial messages piled up at the athletes’ village in Whistler, not far from where Nodar Kumaritashvili died on the first day of an Olympics that now seems destined to bear the scar of the accident.

The sport awarded its first medals of the Vancouver Games — a welcome, if somewhat awkward, moment of joy. At the same time, lugers made clear they were unhappy with changes made to the track in the aftermath of the ghastly crash.

Kumaritashvili was traveling at nearly 90 mph when he flew off the icy course Friday and into a steel pole during a training run. To make sure the sleds ran slower during competition, the run was shortened for both men and women.

“The second they did that, they basically gave the Germans two medals, which was frustrating,” said American Tony Benshoof, who finished eighth and said he respected the decision to alter the course but was not happy with it.

Germany’s Felix Loch took the gold medal after speeding safely through the final curve that took the young Georgian’s life. Teammate David Moeller claimed silver, Italy’s Armin Zoeggler bronze.

The International Olympic Committee and luge officials took sharp criticism for blaming the accident on Kumaritashvili’s failure to make tactical corrections during his run, and for saying they were changing the course not to make it safer but to soothe the emotions of the athletes.

Kumaritashvili’s body will leave this afternoon on a flight to Germany and will then be flown to Georgia for arrival early Wednesday, a senior Olympic official told The Associated Press.

Kumaritashvili is to be buried in his hometown of Bukuriani, a small ski resort about 110 miles from Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet republic.

His father, David, a Soviet-era luger himself, told The Wall Street Journal his son had called three days before his death and said he was terrified by at least one section of the Whistler track, considered the fastest in the world.

“He said, ‘Dad, I’m scared of one of the turns,’ ” the newspaper reported on its Web site Sunday.